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Thursday, April 13, 2017

Loropetalum

The New Southern
Living Garden Book calls this plant “as common as barbecue and beer.” No, the reference is not to azaleas or crab
grass, but instead to the perennial loropetalum (Loropetalum chinense var. rubrum), also know as Chinese fringe-flower. It is indeed everywhere in
and about our county and available at most plant sales and garden centers. In early spring the pink flowers of
loropetalum signal the change of seasons, along with the yellow blooms of
daffodils and forsythia, and although by mid-April those pink blooms are gone,
the attractive burgundy-colored foliage will endure throughout the year.

Its popularity is due not only to its beauty but to its resistance
to disease and pests and its varied uses as an understory plant. Native to the Far East, it is happy in our
climate, thrives in partial to full sun (and will tolerate shade), needs only
moderate amounts of water, and is deer resistant. The rubrum variety grows 8-15 feet tall, but shorter, more compact cultivars are available.

Loropetalum at Sally Hillard Mini-Park at Evergreen and Belvedere

Loropetalum prefers acid or
neutral soil and can exhibit signs of chlorosis (yellow leaves with green
veins) if the soil is too alkaline.

The genus name Loreopetalum
describes the flower shape and combines two Greek words, loron meaning strap and petalon
meaning petal. The strap-shaped petals form in clusters similar to witch hazel
blossoms; both plants are in the Hamamelidaceae family.

I learned about this perennial when I moved into my house
and found two five-foot-tall shrubs in the backyard. I didn't recognize it; certainly, my flower-loving grandmother never grew it, since it wasn't introduced into the country until the late 1980s or early 1990s. It took me awhile to roll the name off my
tongue (thanks to Mary Wade), and I have progressed to giving friends and even strangers lectures on
the plant in grocery stores, in bank parking lots, and on street corners. A year or so ago, in a gardening article in
the Commercial Appeal, Chris Gang
recommended loropetalum and ocala anise as good choices for screens or
borders. Since I have experience with
both in my

Larger shrub in Evergreen Historic District

landscape, of course I recommended these shrubs to a friend who was
searching for a privacy screen between her front porch and the neighboring
porch only a few feet away.

Lorepetalum is more than just a shrub, however, although
most specimens are shrub-like, growing in a natural mounding shape. Mine
were, until they outgrew themselves into gangly, seven-foot tall masses, so
that in February I cut them back. They
are pitiful now, but I had seen this dire step in process in a nearby landscape
and knew that the plants would become the shrubs I want in a year or two.

Sheared loropetalum at Regions Bank on Cleveland Street

Loropetalum can be sheared into a formal hedge like boxwood,
as was the case in front of the Regions Bank on Cleveland Street. There is a wilder version of the loropetalum
hedge near My Big Backyard at the Memphis Botanic Garden. A row of six-foot-tall (at least) Loropetalum lanceum, the white flowering
species, lines the entry walk.

Loropetalum can be limbed up to make a single-trunked small
tree. I have seen several examples of
this in my neighborhood, with the tree usually located at the corner of a house. It can also be espaliered to a
fence or wall. I have read that it can be used for bonsai.

I have just removed a dead gardenia beside my front porch and am wondering what to put in its place. Should it be another gardenia (not likely), an azalea (possibility), a Little Lime hydrangea (strong possibility), or something else? Maybe I should choose one of the compact versions of loropetalum that I keep recommending to everyone else!

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